There are many stereotypes that women in the law enforcement field have to face throughout their career. Women are often troubled with being taken serious as a crime fighter, or if a women would ever be allowed to become a police officer. Women are usually viewed as to gentle, emotional, or weak. In my research paper you will learn the history of women in law enforcement and how women have the same intelligence, compassion, and communication as a male officer.
Women have struggled since the 1800’s to have a career in law enforcement and to be treated with the same respect as male officers. The early history of women police consisted of social service, in which women had to meet high standards for police employment, but received lower wages, were restricted to a special unit or bureau, and were assigned to clerical, juvenile, guard duty and vice work. Women police were not promoted, only in their own women’s unit and weren’t allowed to take the same promotion test as men. On April 1, 1908, Lola Baldwin was sworn in as a female detective to perform police service for the city of Portland, Oregon. She was the first women to become a law enforcement officer. Her previous work was so effective that Baldwin won the support of the mayor, city council, and police chief to make her position on the police department. Although being accepted on the police department, she was still limited to serve “women duties”. Stated on http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/, she was hired to serve as the Superintendent of the Women’s Auxiliary to the Police Department for Protection of Girls. Baldwin along with others did not view herself as the same as that of uniform male officers. She never wore a uniform or carried a firearm, rarely flashed her badge, ...
... middle of paper ...
...ficer, a fighter to the end. She is now, and will forever remain our ‘shero. Thank you for the nine years of dedication,” said Armstrong. As you can see women in enforcement lay down their lives every day for their city, and for that we honor them. I honor all of the women in the law enforcement, past and present. They have overcome a lot of obstacles, gender discrimination to being over looked. They have been told that they are not physically inclined to do police work yet are intelligent, hard working, and dedicated. I look at the women on the Memphis Police Department as heroes, they are not afraid of what statistics says they lay down their life every day. Times have changed from many years ago when physical strength and ego were a priority. Today women who prevail in law enforcement can be defined by one word, Moxie, the ability to face difficulty with spirit.
...erall, I think that this interview has taught me that every law enforcement officer have a different opinion and it should be voiced. Mr. Cayette told me exactly how he felt without holding back. It was different just listening to the responses because it was said by an actual officer instead of just another ordinary person expressing how they feel. The interview also made me realize that people cannot be mad at every police officer for one police officer’s wrong doing. According to National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, “There are more than 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States, which is the highest figure ever. About 12 percent of those are female.” People should stop listening to the media all the time because it does convince people to hate police officers because there are many police officers in the U.S. with good intentions.
Females could only join the patrol as administration or desk jobs. Female applications were not accepted for officer positions until 1976 after the federal civil right laws were amended in the early 70s the patrol worked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Agreement, which helped in the process to invite women to join for the first time the Ohio Highway Patrols 100th cadet class. Out of 100 women only 43 were contacted to further the application process, of that number only 23 went through a written exam that only 15 passed. After that application process only 2 still wanted to join, but after all the requirements only one female passed training and graduated, Dianne Harris, she is the first female patrol officer for the Ohio Highway Patrol and a trailblazer for every female officer that has and will come after her. The minorities today in the patrol account for 15% of the patrol but at its start only two african american men went through cadet training with the academy's 44th class in 1955.
Police Psychology: A New Specialty and New Challenges for Men and Women in Blue. Thomas, David J. 2011.
As cited in Padavic and Reskin’s article Women and Men at Work, discrimination against women in the workplace was a serious issue. They suffered as a result of inferior titles, wages and respect. This “glass ceiling” made it extremely hard for woman to break into higher offices in government organizations, yet O’Conner remained persistent. She finally found a position as a deputy county attorney and began to thrive in the legal field; even landing a seat on the Arizona State Senate where she became the first woman to serve as the state’s Majority Leader. In 1979, she worked on Arizona’s Court of Appeals until she was ultimately appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981.
How minorities feel about police 2. Employing minorities 3. Unfair treatment of minorities within the legal system This review of the information on minorities and policing focuses on these three issues.
He claimed that the statistics seriously under-estimated the extent of female criminality. From an examination of official figures in a number of different countries he claimed to have identified certain crimes that are usually committed by women but are particularly likely to be unreported. Pollak went on to give reasons as to why there should be an under-recording of female crime. 1. He argues that the police, magistrates and other law enforcement officials tend to be men.
The Law Enforcement Profession Abstract In order to understand comptemporary law enforcemment, we should recognize the conditions that impact our profession. It is agreed upon by many scholars that major changes in law enforcement occur every five years. Policing is sometimes characterize"... like a sandbar in a river, subject to being changed continuously by the currents in which it is immersed..."
The negative views of everyday people often make work hard for officers, adding more stress to their careers. The general public regularly criticizes officers for using excessive force and brutality, especially when a police officer ends up killing a suspect or criminal. Oftentimes, especially when a white police officer shoots a citizen of a minority race, the general public is quick to find faults in the officer, blaming the officer for being racist. However, cold, hard statistics show that the majority of police officers are, in fact, white, and the neighborhoods in which these officers are placed in tend to be high-crime areas with many minority citizens living there (Miller “When Cops Kill”). In addition, people might say that a citizen who was shot was not armed; however, almost anything close to the shot individual could have been turned into a deadly weapon that he or she could have used to wound or kill the officer involved. Whenever officers are in this position, the natural reaction is to defend themselves. Everyday, police officers confront the most aggressive, immoral, and sick-minded individuals of society. Officers jeopardize their own lives every time they report for work. Officers witness things that no person should ever have to encounter. They see the most horrific and gruesome scenes that the general public turns away from and
In criminological history, discrimination against women was so evident and naturalised because for centuries, the underlying concept of ‘patriarchy’ or the power of men over women made it acceptable to stereotype women to subordinate women to male power (Carraine et al., 2014). Discrimination against women was maintained by the privileged group, that is men, and operated on multiple dimensions on an individual, institutional, and cultural level (Bell, 2010). On a cultural level, women were believed to be naturally suited to the domestic sphere, and
Belva Lockwood’s legacy continues today. Not only did she open opportunities within the criminology community, but she also gave a voice to women in all areas of work. Today’s women in law enforcement, the courts system, and politics owe their careers to women like Belva Lockwood. She tirelessly paved the way for women and minorities. She would be proud to see how may influential women dominate the criminology work
Men represent eight hundred ninety-six out of every one hundred thousand prison inmates, while women represent only fifty-six out of one hundred thousand. The rates have increased eight hundred percent since the war on drugs was initiated. Even among women prisoners, racial disparities are glaring. Hispanic and African American women have astronomically higher chances of incarceration than white women. Women are also more likely to be arrested for drug and economic crimes, such as possession or embezzlement (McGrath, 10/29). According to the chivalry hypothesis, the low rates of prosecuted female offenders reflect the leniency with which law enforcement treats women offenders (McGrath, 10/29). Gender differences in aggression and empathy play into the public perception of the ideal offender, and women do not fit the profile. Rather than applying the law equally across genders, police buy into the socially constructed view of women: meek, gentle, caring, empathic, and definitely not capable of cruel criminality (McGrath,
Our society has become one that is very diverse. Law enforcement agencies (local, state, and federal) for our changing society need to include an increase representation of women and minorities, definite improvement in leadership skills, and to strengthen community policing. These are all issues of great importance, which are no longer going to be pushed aside.
In today’s society, there are many ways that people perceive law enforcement officers. It is believed that all police officers like donuts. Some people picture all officers as being masculine or sporting a flattop haircut. Many believe that all cops must meet a ticket quota each month. And lately, police officers are perceived to violently arrest based on racial profiling and discrimination. All of these views are stereotypes of a law enforcement officer. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines stereotype as “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same”. A stereotype is a broad generalization that many times is only true for a small minority. Stereotypes can be hurtful and incorrect. They
The first police department in America developed in New York and began the first era of policing which spanned from the 1830s to 1900 and is known as the political era (Walker & Katz, 2012). As emphasized by Walker (1999) not only did the political era of policing revolve around politics but provided officers with little to no training, education or recruitment standards (as cited in Police: History, 2014). The era also forced shaky job security for law enforcement and officers could be fired and hired at any point with little to no reason. Even men with criminal records were foot patrolling and women were only seen as “matrons” for the jail; they did not carry weapons and often times had very little arrest discretion (Walker & Katz, 2012). According to Walker and Katz (2012), “a $300 payment to the Tammany Hall poli...
This paper will show four different police departments that are currently hiring or recruiting for police officers. There will be a summary on the research found on the process used to recruit police officers. It will also show their current hiring trends and what hiring practices they have that are successful or not successful. The paper will also go over the different methods departments use to train their new officers and their values.